Improvement in skates



UNITED STATES PATENT @EETCE.

DANIEL H. SHIRLEY, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN SKATES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 42,316, dated April 12, 1864.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL H. SHIRLEY, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Skates; and I do hereby declare that the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, hereinafter referred to, forms a full and exact specification of the same, wherein I have set forth the nature and principles of my said improvements, whereby my invention may be distinguished from all others of a similar class, together with such parts as I claim and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent.

My improvements are made upon a skate for which Letters Patent of the United States were granted to me, bearing date the 25th day of June, 1861, in which the skate is fastened and held upon the boot or shoe without the use of straps, by means of a heellockin g screw and a toe-cap, the operation of which is fully described in the. schedule an nexed to the said Letters Patent.

The object of the present invention is to obviate the defects which by practical use I have found to exist in the said skate, and to make its fastenings more certain in their operation and less liable to get out of order.

In the use of the heel-screw, I have found that its button occasioned too great friction upon the heel of the boot or shoe, so that it was difficult to turn it, either for fastening or unfastening. The arrangement of the screw and its button also was such that great strain was brought to bear upon the screw where it was unsupported, causing it to bend and often to break. I have now made such an arrangement of devices as to cause the strain to be relieved from the screw and the friction from its button, the pressure upon the same being transferred to and supported by a sliding plate or box, the operation of which I will now proceed to explain in detail.

In the accompanying plate of drawings, Figure 1 is a plane or top view. Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal vertical section; Figs. 3 and 4, detail views.

a a in the drawings represent the body of the skate, made of metal or other suitable material, having a toe-cap, I), in front. This body is made with a set-off, 0, against which the front of the heel rests. The set-off c has spikes or prongs projecting from it, which enter the front of the heel when the skate is fastened.

()ne mode by which I strengthen the heellocking screw 01 d is represented in Fig. 4. In this case the screw d passes through the lower lip, e, of a sliding barff and through a screw-box, g, cast under the heel part of the body of the skate. A small shoulder of the button h of. the screw d cl bears against the lip, instead of immediately against the heel of the boot or shoe, as in myprevious invention, while the heel itself is pressed against by the lip i, which projects upward from the sliding bar f f. The said sliding bar is made broad at the part nearest the back of the heel and has a bearing in the set-off a, through which it freely passes. By this arrangement it will be seen that but very little friction will be received by the button of the screw, and that by the use of the sliding barff, with its broad base and its bearing in the set-off 0, the strain and pressure that would otherwise be brought to bear upon the screw will be received and sustained by the said sliding bar f f.

Another arrangement of devices for accomplishin g the same result, but having the same general principles, is represented in Figs. 1, 2, and 3 of the accompanying drawings. In this arrangement I use a sliding box, k, traveling in the heel portion 0 of the body of the skate. The sliding box 70 has formed upon its near end a lip, m, against which a shoulder of the button a bears. The heel-locking screw at 61 extends through the sliding box and also through the setotf' c, in which it has a bearing. By this arrangement, it will be observed, the screw d d is sustained by the whole length of the sliding box 70, and also by its bearing in the set-off 0, and, consequently, that it is kept entirely free from pressure, so that it is freely and easily turned in fastening and unfastening the skate, and cannot be easily strained or warped under any circumstances.

Having thus described my improvements, what I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The construction and arrangement of the sliding box It, with its lip on and screw d d,

the whole operating together, as set forth.

Witnesses: D. H. SHIRLEY.

J OSEPH GAVETT, ALBERT W. BROWN.

W. H. STEVENS. TOY SPRING GUN.

No. 42,317; Patented Apr. 12, 18-64.

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